fatherhood
by lovelylehanna
Summary: Shawn and Cory have a talk about Maya. Set right after Girl Meets Goodbye. (one-shot)


**Hello, everyone! This is my first story being posted on here! I had some published before, but I'm restarting.**

**I came up with this plot in the bathroom (where all of my best ideas come from). It felt like a good idea, so here we are! I apologize if this isn't good. I'm in a writing funk that I haven't been able to get myself out of.**

**Shawn and Maya's father/daughter relationship is so cute, and there should be an unlimited supply of stories about them, but alas, there isn't.**

* * *

"Why did I do that?" Shawn questioned his best friend. He had just given Maya the adoption papers an hour ago and was already starting to regret it.

"Because you love Maya and want her to officially be your daughter," Cory answered in an obvious tone.

Shawn let out an exasperated sigh. He sat down on his friend's bed. "What if I screw up? I'm fine with screwing up my own life, but Maya's?"

His own dad, Chet, wasn't exactly a model parent. He dropped Shawn off at some dirty motel while he chased Shawn's step-mom at one point! He needed to be a better dad to Maya than that.

"So that's why you look like that. You're worried about what kind of father you'll be to Maya."

"She's calling me Dad, Cor," the man nervously said.

"And how does that make you feel?"

Shawn thought for a moment. He replied honestly, "Oh, it's the best feeling ever! I don't know if I deserve to be called dad, though. What if I mess up?"

"You won't mess up. Plus, the bar for her father is set very low. There's not much to live up to."

"True, but there's you. Before I came along, you were her father-figure. She cried on _you._ when her dad came back. I wasn't there, I was in Florida!" He raised his voice slightly, letting his frustration with himself show. "I can't let her down. She's already been let down by her dad before."

"You won't let her down."

Shawn threw his hands up in the air. His eyes made contact with Cory's for the first time in the entire conversation. "How do you know that?"

He was tired of his best friend making such strong statements despite not knowing the future. Who was he to say that Shawn wouldn't let the girl down?

"Will you leave her just because you don't think you'll be a good enough father?"

"No, of course not," Shawn murmured and looked at his feet. He vowed to never leave the girl long before this colloquy. Cory put his hand on Shawn's shoulder.

"That's how I know."

He fidgeted with his jacket zipper. "And Maya thinks of me as cool and the older male-version of herself. Now what am I gonna be? The lame dad?"

"Why is her opinion of you going to change just because she's your daughter now?"

"Do you even watch TV?! The dads are bumbling idiots! I don't want to be one of them!" He heard his friend chuckle at his words.

"This isn't television. This is real life."

Shawn raised an eyebrow at Cory. "Then why does my life feel like a sitcom?"

"Are you kidding? My life's a sitcom! Yours is a soap opera!"

The two men heard a noise coming from outside the bedroom. It was light footsteps. The door opened to reveal a familiar blonde teenager.

"Hi, _Dad_," Maya said with a giggle. She was definitely going to enjoy calling Shawn her dad.

"Maya," was all he managed to say.

The curly-haired man smiled at the father-daughter duo. They really were adorable together. Nobody had made Maya as happy as Shawn did. He wished that Shawn would realize that.

"I'm really excited to be a Hunter," she let him know. Ever since she was thirteen, she fantasized about Shawn being her dad. Now it was finally real. She could practically burst into sparkles, as Riley would put it.

"I am as well," he awkwardly told her. He tried to shake off his nerves. "And I'm sorry."

She dropped her joyful gleam. Maya cautiously asked, "For what?"

"For all the things I'm gonna do. Oh, and I have no idea how to be a father," Shawn laughed at his attempt to mirror their previous exchange. "Everything I know about being a dad is from Turner, and he didn't exactly know what he was doing."

"You've been the best dad I've ever had _already_. I'm sure you'll be fine," she gave him a warm and reassuring smile. "I just have one request."

"What's that?" He tilted his head to the left.

"Please don't chase away boys like Matthews does." That was the one thing that Maya did NOT envy about Riley.

Shawn smirked at the image that appeared in his head. "I don't think I can. Josh is a lot faster than me. You got any slower crushes?"


End file.
